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Costco, bad experience

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I’d asked a few questions here about getting new and you folks have been very helpful.

I went to my local Costco and got a hearing test and then the 9050 was recommended. Good! Except then the hearing aid specialist said, oops no that wont work with your iphone 11. Lets look at a Jabra. Oops no that wont work with your phone either. You will have to go with Sennheiser. Asked her a few other questions and she seemed to not be knowledgeable at all.

Told her I’d go home and think about it.

Called a different Costco 100 miles away. A whole different experience. They said of course the Phillips and Jabra will work. I told them my experience at the other store, they had it in their file what she had told me. They sighed and said, come to our store we will fix you up. So I’m going there.

I don’t think the person at store 1 was just having a bad day, she seemed confident in her answers but they were just wrong.

Its costly to drive 200 miles round trip 3 times to get fitted and 2 follow ups but I quess that what I’ll do.

Thank you all for your help.

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I would contact the first store’s management and let them know that this person needs some more training. You will be doing Costco, this person, and the next costumer a favor.

Note your goal is to get this person trained and not fired.

According to Google :

AI Overview

Yes, the Philips HearLink 9050 is compatible with iPhone 11

and supports hands-free calling and streaming via Bluetooth , provided the iPhone is running iOS 15.2 or later. The connection is made through the iPhone’s Accessibility settings, where the hearing aids appear under “Hearing Devices” for pairing.

So, is your phone running IOS 5.2 or later?

Yes its running 18.6.2

And yes I’ll probably contact the store manager after I get them at the other store.

If I had not done my research first I would have just taken her word for anything she said. Many, perhaps most especially older people (yes I am an OLDER person :slight_smile: ) would probably not question the “expert”.

In reply to @Raudrive

I dont know if they have others, I could ask. But you know thats difficult.
Its hard to tell someone essentially, I don’t have confidence in you I want someone else. And if I get them I’ll still probably be seeing this person when I come in to get them cleaned or adjusted. Its easier to get them at a different store.
Ya know what I mean?

I have had a similar experience at one Costco vs another, where they made statements that were totally wrong, and provided no rationale to backup their claims. In my case, I did elevate to the Store Manager. He supported the Hearing Aid Center’s narrative and stated she was just following corporate Costco policy.

In reply to @rcrvrp

@rcrvrp said:

I dont know if they have others, I could ask. But you know thats difficult.

I understand what you are saying. I guess I am just getting older and don’t mind dealing with these things.

These fitters and audiologist are dealing with about 15-20 people a day 5-6 days a week guessing. That’s a pretty big number. Odds are they won’t remember you if you are polite. Then if they do they will not have bad feelings for you. Everyone is learning something. A good thing.

Think about it. 200 miles closer!

In reply to @Trolling-tenkan

In this case the second store person looked me up in the computer and said , “ I see it here, she made a note that she told you the Phillips and Jabra wouldn’t work with iphone 11.”

Apparently they put notes from a consultation into a record under my name. Seems kind of strange since we didn’t have anything but a pleasant conversation. Nice they have the test results there but why would she note that she said the aids would not work with my phone?

Now I’m glad she did, it confirms her error.

After all is taken care of by the other store I may ask them about it.
They sound of their sigh and instantly telling me they would take care of me makes me think I may not be the first person who had problems with store number 1.

Ill update here as relevant and appropriate.

Some companies monitor the net to look at social media posts mentioning their name.

Does anyone know if that is the case with Costco?

In reply to @rcrvrp

At each of the local Costco stores each licensed fitter has a wall plack with their names - including who is senior. When I went back to Costco after a number of years away, I checked the names at my favorite store and made an appointment with the senior hearing aid fitter. I’m very happy with my choice, but as others have noted on the forums, there can be a huge difference in the quality of service depending on the store and especially the fitter you get.

I’ve been told by a reliable source that the Costco fitters get very little or no training when a new hearing aid model comes in. So they aren’t perfect by any means. On my Jabra 30s (a new model, btw) my fitter called the Jabra tech support to get an answer for one of my questions. She learned something in the process, where another fitter (like your’s possibly) might have taken a different route.

Well to maintain a hearing aid specialist license here in Washington state, one must have 30 hours of continuing education credits every 3 years.

So at least a Costco hearing aid fitter will have that much continuing education training here in Washington state.

Which equates to 10 hours continuing education per year. Part of continuing education is likely training for Costco’s latest guidance, regulations/legal changes/concerns. Then you have 4 hearing aid brands that require training each year. Potentially other subjects/guidance like iphone/android changes and compatibility.

Really creates crunch when multiple brands release new models in same year.

Don’t forget the constant phone updates that require the fitter to train their elderly customers on how to interface with hearing aids app controls, now that most have only one button, which has shrunk drastically in size. Especislly challenging for senior hands, forcing use of phone app control more.

What I have noticed and been confirmed by Costco Mgt is that fitters tend to have their favorite brands, which leads to biased recommendations not based on best hearing aid for customer loss. I experienced this first hand when using another fitter for followups than the original fitter that recommended the brand I was wearing

Prior to Covid, I saw more actual audiologist at Costco, but now only new fitters replacing departed audiologist/fitters. Which is theme I see a lot in service industries where post Covid replacements are less experienced and lower quality employee. So problem not limited to just Costco.

In my experience, the Senior fitter, was the least experienced in my brand of hearing aids.

In reply to @rcrvrp

Maybe it’s a bit awkward, but I’ve done it, and no one seemed particularly upset. My one experience with a fitter other than the one I’ve always used at my local Costco wasn’t good. Since then when I call for an appointment, I’m careful to ask for the one who’s always helped me by name. When a neighbor asked me about going to Costco for aids, I told her to do the same and gave her the name.

@rcrvrp said:

I went to my local Costco and got a hearing test and then the 9050 was recommended. Good! Except then the hearing aid specialist said, oops no that wont work with your iphone 11. Lets look at a Jabra. Oops no that wont work with your phone either. You will have to go with Sennheiser. Asked her a few other questions and she seemed to not be knowledgeable at all.

I think you know already but I can confirm my Jabra Enhance Pro 30’s worked very well with the my iPhone 11 Pro.

Maybe I was lucky but I got the senior fitter for my first appointment. He has been great and so we also booked my wife to see him.

We purchased our Jabra Pro 30’s just a few days after Costco got them (we actually went in to get either the Philips 9050s or Jabra Pro 20’s) and during our fitting he already knew everything about the new Pro 30’s (I suspect he is the kind the person who if he gets something new he wants to dive in and learn all about it). He is very happy to listen to our feedback and adjust/give advice and says he works closely with many clients (local musicians etc) to get the best from their hearing aids.

If you get a fitter you don’t like try another one (at the same store), if you get one you do like stick with them!

If friends or family use Costco for hearing aids ask them for recommendations.

I presume the 9050 is a Phillips . Last summer, I got Phillips Hearlink 9040 aids. They worked very well with my iPhone 11. Unfortunately, they did not work as well with my ears as did my older KS10’s except when streaming. (Sound was highly distorted except when streaming.)

Costco’s support was excellent. The HA specialists tried mightily to make the Phillips HAs work and they also let me try 2 other brands. Eventually, I returned the aids and got a cochlear implant for one ear and a Phonak Link M HA for the other.

@FredO said:

Eventually, I returned the aids and got a cochlear implant for one ear and a Phonak Link M BTE HA for the other

How is that going?

#####

I have had a significant problem with hearing aids not connecting to android phones. This is a much bigger issue than the manufacturers of cell phones realize. Generally you can access a list of phones a specific hearing aid is compatible with by going to the hearing aid manufacturer’s site. However, you should not stop at that because it really takes a call to the Bluetooth specialists at the hearing aid manufacturer to get the real story. All of that being said, the compatibility of Apple products with hearing aids is much higher than that of android phones.

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